HELLO JELLIES :DD (GASP! today is the anniversary of sept11!)
tday was there from 3.15 - 5.30pm!
finally taught An after soo long, haha! he's turned alot faster! we managed to finish 6 pages in 10 minutes! :DD
after he was done, i taught JL.. she.. still prefers to get answers -.-
her maths has improved, but it may be due to the questions being simple subtraction and addition (they're working with Time now, though).
i sucked at Time back in primary school and i remember colouring and destroying the clock in the living room out of vengence keke :DD
then i taught Lus! he hasnt changed much, but towards the end he was super sianned and telling me how he hated maths and everything to do with it, including me, and refusing to do questions at the end. then i got fed up with his attitude and told him to get his attitude right, or i'm leaving him to do it. then his attitude improved..
i pinned a mini Guides trefoil on my pencil case, and a p4 girl at the centre saw it.. she pointed at it and asked where i got it.. i was wondering why she would be interested in my trefoil.. then she told me she was a Brownie! hahas! :DDD
had a lot of kids and teachers asking me where you all were today!
Jo: where's 长颈鹿？(aka tuyanXD)me: she isnt here..Jo: why? her best friend leh?me: huh? who?Jo: the scientist!me: sarah?Jo: dunno.me: they're both still at school, having lessonsJo: HOR! YOU SKIP SCHOOL RIGHT!me: haha, no. they take alot of subjects, so they stay in sch longer(:Ro: farah leh? how come farah never come with you?me: oh, she couldnt come.. plus exams are coming! do you miss her?Ro: ME? no lah! ah okay, about 1%An: HAHA LIKE REAL! YOU WANT HER(farah) HERE RIGHT!Ro: *pouts and walks away*Sel: fenghan?(i think she said that, i wasnt too sure, her voice was so soft, but i'm sure it's you :D) how come that jiejie never come? where is she? is she ever coming back?me: oh, it's exams now, thats why we arent comingSel: oh. okay. will she be coming?me: nope, not todaySel: oh.. why?me: *faints*Jes: where's that jiejie?me: oh, you mean jean?Jes: not sure. that one lorme: she's not hereJes: oh. why ah?me: *omgggggg* *repeats reason i told Sel*auntie cat asked where we were.. i said you all were still in school..
AuntC: so, in other words, they never come lah.
me: ahh.. yeah..
AuntC: will you all still come?
me: we're not here now because of the exams.. probably till after the exams, which ends in oct.
AuntC: huh. Oct ah. but by the time you all come back they've all finished their exams already what. no purpose already.
me: *stunned*
me: ah, last year i came to help out with the trips out, and revised with them their work using the centre's assessment books.
AuntC: oh. ok.
i got the feeling AuntC was disappointed that we weren't teaching them, cause of the exams.. i was kinda incredulous.. is she asking us to spend less time on our academics to help them, right at the critical moments before the exam? and also, i think she thought we weren't committed, that we were there purely just for the hours and for the SL, and that once the SL ended,we all 拍拍屁股就走, cause we've already 'used' them.
Auntie Yewhwa asks if we would like to organise some stuff for them during the hols!it could be daycamp!! (doesnt have to be academic AT ALL!:DD)i was thinking of us organising one, and it could be named JELLYCAMP! all prizes will be jellies :DDor a 2hr, 3hr course! (on arts and crafts, etc. was thinking of using white glue and felt and making christmas stockings! then on the last day can give them candy to put into the christmas stocking! when i was younger i clipped to my bed the longest sock i could find in hopes of getting more candy from "santaclaus".. i used my dad's super long black sock. my sis was smarter. she used my mum's stockings. haha)or, another outing! :DDshe suggested SPCA, etcetc!i really really really think we should organise one! please? =3Labels: 9.11.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Thursday, September 11, 2008
6th Aug! :DD
Everyone there from 4-6pm! :DD
missed the previous trip on the 30th cause i was training for the Guides Pioneering test (I passed!! :DD)
At first when i got there, An was away at percussion! D:
so i taught LeHa instead.
I was devastated!! nah just kidding :DD
in the start of the year, before SL began, i taught LeHa. He was really hard to handle, he refuses to concentrate, keeps asking you to buy stuff for him, simply ignores you if he ain't interested.
but he needed help and i was available, so i took him on anyway. and ah.. he has become better since the start of the year. He listened a little attentively, was able to do some questions. Then his attention wandered, but using coloured markers was effective in grabbing his interest in doing the questions. only problem was, he kept arguing with me over the markers he should use, and why the lady in the question had to give away her cupcakes -.-
with the markers we managed to do about 6 questions in one hour.. pretty okay :DD
and then An came out!
He was super enthusiastic and even gave me a warning before plopping down his book beside me "jiejie, you surely will have sorethroat when you finish teaching me! i got alot and alot of questions to ask you! *flips pages*"
haha so cute! in the end we managed to finish about 4 pages, not bad too :DD
several points to note:
When An doesnt know how to read a person's name in the question, like "Timothy has balhbalhablabh", i'ld tell him to just call the person "T", 'cause i feel the name isnt important, and "T" is all you need to draw a model.
but the teacher there felt that learning how to pronounce english words were important (it can also help him in English). So i taught him Timothy - Tea-Mole-Thea
and i also told him something that MrGan told me:
whenever you dont know a value, just show it out, but leave the details blank first!
pretty effective when it comes to drawing models, cause An hesitates to draw a model when he doesn't know the value. (like the current me haha)
--
today we also asked the teachers to do the survey, because from what i was told, the teachers didnt allow themselves to do the survey last week, saying that we needed to clear it with their heads (Faith jiejie and Auntie Yewhwa) first.
Very valid point, so they asked Faith jiejie, who said that they can only grade when they were sitting beside us, so the survey was pushed back to today.
but when we gave the surveys out today, the teachers informed us that they had a meeting a few days ago, and that Auntie Yewhwa wanted to take a look at the surveys before we distributed them.. and i felt immensely guilty..
the whole survey could have been done better.. i didnt think of it then, but it was kinda rude of us not to clear with them the survey, particularly the principal, auntie yewhwa..
made us look bad.. sorry jellies >.<
i'll try and think before i do stuff next time @.@
Labels: 8.06.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Saturday, August 9, 2008
16th July~
All there from 3.40 to 5.50! pm.
Using Mr Liu's idea, i brought something little to show him how the apple question works. Wanted to bring lego blocks, but i couldnt find enough..
so i brought little stones instead!
he could understand pretty well, but it was kinda hard to get him to listen to me and watch me move around the stones, when all he wanted to do was touch them himself -.-
but in the end he was willing to listen to me, after i promised him he could use the stones after he understands the question. then i asked him to explain for me all over again how the question should be solved, he could do it :DD
so yeah, question down! then we moved on to his other questions! since we already had the stones on the table, we decided to use the stones to help us understand the question, cause he likes moving the stones around, and was perfectly happy to use the stones to make "3D-models".
the red stones represent the ring, the blue stone represents the chain!using the stones were good, though sometimes he gets super carried away and cant be bothered to do the questions.
he went off halfway for some percussion lesson, and when he came back he informed me that he was gonna have percussion lessons every wednesday at 3.30!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Last time the band thingy by the other school took away An from 3.30 till 5. now this?! omgggggggg.
i seriously want to ask the centre whether An can get removed from the other programme, but An likes to play percussion , plus Farah's Ro said that An was specially chosen!
sigh. guess i'll have to make use of our remaining time every wed super productively!
anyways, we were productive yesterday, and i think he's improved in his model drawing! :DD
*doing work seriously*haha, gonna bring stones again next week! and i'll try looking for other coloured ones too :DD
one last pic:
did this when An was @ percussion, fenghan's heart was wayy nicer! :DD
and thus i left happily :DDLabels: 7.16.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, July 16, 2008
nine(teen! :D) of july thinkings
We were all there from 3.45 to 5.35 today!
Tutored An today again. We had a lot of model drawing to do! SO! we did the questions :DD
tried explaining to him the 3-box-4-box-how-many-apple question using mr liu's method that i mentioned in the last post, but he cannot understand! or rather, he was "huh?" and very impatient and hence too frustrated to try and understand the concept slowly.
during the day, i realised that An is visual/kinestatic learner! he understands immediately when you draw him a diagram to represent the question, but he isn't interested enough to actually do the question. so his "kinestatic" trait kicks in and he's only willing to do when he moves stuff around.
i realised that mr gan uses kinestatic methods to teach us, or at least the visuals on the board/ projector screen move around. i cant do the same with An cause the setting is different, plus he likes to move stuff using his own hands and not watch me move them, so little objects are needed instead! lego blocks! :DD
he also has this new little quirk, and it helps to keep him interested in the questions cause he dosent get "sianned". He likes to be a flower, then after he's done with every question, he will "wilt" and collapse onto the table and demand that i water him. so i have no choice but to imaginary-ly pour invisible water on him to help him "grow" until he's an "adult flower" and hence be able to attentively listen to me explain the him to question, or attempt the question himself. It's good that he amuses himself and creates his own "fillers", but it's kinda boring after a while when i have to keep "watering" him and be careful not to "over-water" him, incase he wilts due to excessive rain.
so we were pretty productive, not bad :DD.
as for reflection on my behavior, i think i was okay, but i shouldnt have shown my bored face when i have to keep on watering him. i dont think it made a difference to An, but if i were him, i wouldnt feel good if my tutor showed she was bored with me DD:
Labels: 7.09.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @
2nd JULY. (2 more days to USA's national day. :D)
JULY ALR. TIME FLIES FREAKING FAST. @.@
TODAY WE ALL WENT! 4.30 to 6.20. :DD
--
HOHO! bought An chocolates to say sorry over the stupid question last week.
incompetent tutor D:
he was very 'man' and said "i dont need chocolates. i will listen to you one."
aww! =3
so anyway, we did the questions fast today! super productive, finished 8 questions in slightly more than an hour! :DD
he was in a happy happy mood, and plus i think it was cause he told me that he would listen to me even without the chocolates. he just say, cannot possibly retract his statement so quick :DD
i realised that they all have a bad habit.
when they dont know something, they'll go
them: "this x that x this x this! right?" *jabs randomly at paper*
me: noo.. why do you think so?
them "dunno leh. OHOH! how about this x that x that! *jabs somemore*
me: nooo!! dont anyhow guess leh!
them: "oh. okay. SO, it's this x this x that right?"
me: *faints*
and some of them also have this bad habit, thinking that we'll tell them the answers, and so they're too lazy to think!
i think, for both the problems, we have to clarify (and kill any hopes) that we'll not let them anyhow guess and tell them answers!
how about saying this
" young jedi, before we start on this horrible programme, please sign this contract. by signing, you promise on your pencilcase that you will Not anyhow guess answers, Will listen to us explain, *inserts simple instructions here*"
anyway, that session with An was :DDD!
--------
That day Sarah was having a terrible time. What was wrong?
C's attitude. it was super horrible.
She was just sitting there, totally ignoring Sarah.
And that continued for god knows how long. actually i know. about the entire session.
Sarah had a hell lot of patience, and was still trying to convince and persuade her to concentrate.
Even i got angry watching C, AND I WASNT EVEN TEACHNG HER. OMG.
*salutes Sarah for your unrivaled patience! :D*
i wanted to march over, and yank the little ap kid till she pays attention to me, and tell her that if she doesnt want to learn, don't waste sarah's time and energy.
she has 2 options:
either improve until the teachers feel she's too good to be tutored.
or listen to sarah and improve.
If Sarah taught any other kids, i tell you, they'll all be loving her to bits. Which tutor would go compile a cute mini working book for you, buy erasers for you, sit there and persuade you to do your work for 2 hrs?! and sarah didnt lose her temper, and just endured C's blacky face.
what the hell?! Whose the one benefitting from this tutoring, huh? whose the one shelling out time and energy to tutor, huh? Sarah isn't obliged to sit there and take your shit, little missy.
This kid has a serious attitude problem.
Hmm. Scolding her probably wont have any effect. Maybe a talk? but sarah can't be the one doing it.. cause it'll be odd.
eg:
sarah: C, i am not obliged to teach you. sometimes you may feel bored and you might not want to do, and start to ignore me and day dream. you feel that its okay for you, since you prefer to day dream instead of using your brains and doing your work. but dont forget that i'm here to teach you. and you're wasting my time and energy. i can leave any time i want to teach someone else, but because im committed to helping you, i'm still here teaching you. The teachers asked you to be taught by me because you're weaker in your maths. Do you want to be stuck with me for forever? Pay attention to me, and let's work together to improve your maths. you're smart enough, just not enough will and determination to make an effort.
on the other hand, i think can leh XD
on the other other hand, i think it's a bit odd for such words to be leaving Sarah's mouth. doesnt fit her Mother Theresa image O.O
maybe get someone else to "counsel" C?
---
to defuse sianness, maybe do a little activity before starting, like the simon says thingy mentioned earlier. :DD
im pretty sure the kids like moving about when they're bored, like jumping randomly and flapping like an obese bird. cause i like to do that sometimes too XDD
move your body! :DD
--
lotsa stuff to discuss on monday!
- C's problem
- Filler = jumping around? simon says? 哎呀，总而言之就是要动就对了拉。
- student file update! :D
- (if you all wanna add anything here, just edit this post :D)
Labels: 7.02.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Saturday, July 5, 2008
27th June
We were there from 4.00pm to 6.20pm, Sarah and Tuyan didnt go due to their mass bio lecture.
Taught An and JL today, since her ACJC tutor didnt come and she needed help.
JL wasnt willing to do at first, but once she saw that i was carrying the marker pens, she instantly started to take out the markers and start writing and doing willingly. But when she met with questions that she didnt know how to do, she went like "har. jiejie, how to do?"
the first few times i taught, she listened carefully and when i asked her to explain for me everything again, she could. However, the next few times, she just got sian-ed and went "eh, jiejie, tell me how to do leh." and then copy down what i say word for word, then prance off to go toilet or something. DD:
needa find a way to get her attention, and to prevent sian-ness!!
An was, to my not-so-surprise, was happy to see me, and of course that made me happy!!
:D
Things were going fine, his attitude was splendid, and he was still joking around with Farah's Ro.
He wanted to play abit, and i let him, after every question was done, so the atmosphere was rather relaxed. And because he was happy to get to play, he was also happy to listen to me. But then we met with the stupid question.
You have a number of apples. When put into boxes of 3, you have 5 more boxes than if you put the apples into boxes of 4. How many apples do you have?
i was O.O. how on earth do you show that in models?!
me: since they didnt state the smallest possible number of apples..
my stupid method:
If you have (3 x 4)(1) apples, you have 4 boxes of 3, 3 boxes of 4. you have 1 more box of 3 than 4.If you have (3 x 4)(2) apples, you have 8 boxes of 3, 6 boxes of 4. you have 2 more boxes of 3 than 4.If you have (3 x 4)(3) apples, you have 12 boxes of 3, 9 boxes of 4. you have 3 more boxes of 3 than 4.If you have (3 x 4)(4) apples, you have 16 boxes of 3, 6 boxes of 12. you have 4 more boxes of 3 than 4.If you have (3 x 4)(5) apples, you have 20 boxes of 3, 15 boxes of 4. you have 5 more boxes of 3 than 4.Yeah, i know its pretty confusing. but I had to teach An to answer the question!!
and this was the simplest method i thought of.
Needless to say, he started getting frustrated and angry again, and me too. cause i explained the whole system and wrote it out for him at least 5 times, and spent 45 mins on this already.
so i consulted Farah!
She used algebra!
Let X be the number of boxes.4X = 3X + 5X = 5Number of apples4X = 60!so i tried teaching this to An, and he still couldnt understand! (this one was kinda expected, cause he has no idea what algebra is, but worth a try :DD)
Then i looked at the other childrens' books. they all did corrections for the question, and they said Auntie Sharm taught them that. So i went off to find her, with An's book in hand. And she said that the question itself was rather baffling, and that none of the teachers could get it. so she told me to split the question into two and everything. then i mentioned to her Farah's method, to show that the question isn't wrong. It's just that i dont know how to teach An this.
Then she just told me to randomly fob off An, anything to get the answer first.
So i went back and told An alot of junk @.@.
Yeah, but that's been cleared up cause Mr Liu taught us how to show using the model method.
the 5 extra boxes were absorbed by the 4-each-boxes!
How many apples are in the 5 extra boxes?
5x3 = 15.
These 15 apples were "absorbed" by the boxes of 4. Each box can absorb 1.(cause 4-3=1)
The apples were absorbed fully. meaning there were 15boxes of 4.
How many apples were there?
15x4! = 60!
yeap :DD
----------------------------------
Ive realised that I've turned from a interesting tutor to a sian-ed one too. DD:
Last time, i was super energetic when i was with them, but i always ended up dead beat and super tired when i get home..
Recently, i seem to be cant-be-bothered anymore. and when i get home, i still have energy O.O
eg: when the kids couldnt concentrate last time, i would 撒娇 shamelessly until they laugh and are more willing to listen to me and do their work.
now, when they show disinterest, i just make half-hearted attempts to get their attention, like saying "An, pay attention pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?". and if they dont pay attention, then i lose interest too, and give them this annoyed look; -_-. DD:
I think i was better when i just started out. DD:
Time for reflection on my part.
p/s. since the kids seem to love simon-says so much. im thinking of having mini-simon-says whenever they get bored. (like the fillers that mr liu mentioned)Part of the fun of simon says is when the laughing when someone does it wrong, so make sure you do it too!
Maybe we can pair up, 2 children, and 2 of us. or bigger, if possible. XD
The atmosphere and the centre has gotten seriously sian. time to
liven it up! before we all die of boredom :DD
whenever youre bored, stand up and do stupid actions! :DD
Labels: 6.27.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @
army museum for 12/6/08 :D
fenghan and i went from 1pm till 3.40pm
third time going, was a bit sianned already.. BUT THIS TRIP WAS INTERESTING :D
haha, you'll see why.
this time the guide didnt skip any of the exhibitions, but since we had 50 p1 and p2 kids, they were very cute, but also kept interrupting the tourguide.
could see he was quite irritated and kept stopping and saying "i am T.A.L.K.I.N.G. you cannot touch me when im talking!" but his irritated comments were quite funny =X
then we went around the usual places, the wall, the ringing phone, overturned bus, 20 gifts from other countries, and then the highlight: the theatre :D
this time while the kids were lining up outside the theatre, they kept pointing up at the 2nd floor, and shouting "mummy! mummy!!"
and i was @.@?!!?!?
how on earth did their mummies follow us here?!
they were pointing at the Army -.-
there were about.. 80 army ppl? cause there were more of them than the kids.
fenghan said they went "whoa" when they saw the kids
anyway, then we went in and sat down, while those mummies remained outside.
then they came in, and they were folding their arms and then none of them sat down, all just stood behind us. kinda intimidating.
but halfway thru the show i looked at fenghan, and two were sitting beside her XDD (WHOO)
anyways, THE KIDS WERE SUUUUUUUPER CUTE DURING THE SHOW!!
the guide warned them before hand that its gonna be loud.. so use hand to cover ears if they cannot take it.
when the strong winds and bombs came out, the kids were screaming.. (dont know whether in terror or delight) and then they were frantically pulling out their raincoats outta their bags and wearing it, and then pulling down their hoods and holding their hands to their ears!!
i was laughing my ass off =X
but they were still cute :DD
and then it was pretty hot that day, so they only played for a while in the park.. and this time, no one was allowed to go climb the structures.. so yeah, no casualties :DD
and that was about it.. :D
Labels: 6.12.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Friday, June 13, 2008
trip to army museum, 11.06.08
HEYY :D
today we all went, from 12.30pm to 4.40pm :D
today we went out with 30+ p3s to the outing museum.
AND IT WAS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE.
okay lah, slighty better than last week, as in we were actually useful and busy, but things also got outta hand..
1. 10 less people than less week, but twice the trouble.
first, the kns tourguide SKIPPED THE ENTIRE FREAKING FIRST LVL.
i was thinking, oh, maybe the top's occupied, so we go somewhere else first, later then backtrack.
but when he ended the thing freaking early, i was like "sir. we missed the entire first level. you know the parts about the wall being made from the metal off the tanks, the letters made from the bullet cartridges?". he looked surprised i knew, then said hurridly "oh. those not important. no need to go"
needless to say, i was freaking pissed.
2. wah. the kids is really those "i defy you infront your face, what can you do?" attitude.
esp that medley/medwin/whatever name guy. ive never met a kid with an attutide problem as big as his. i felt like slapping him.
eg:
auntie cat: you boys! only one person can go up on the tank at one time! (to look for the waterbottle)
*medwin climbs on the tank*
me: boss, can find anot?
med: wait ah.. cannot find!
me: okay. thanks, and come down.
med: eheh! i never check the back.. i dont dare to go.. can ask lus come up with me to find?
me: didnt you hear the instruction? one at a time!
*med attempts to smuggle lus up*
*but lus listens to instructions, and dont want to go up.*
med: okayokay la, i go down, he come up, can?
me: yeah sure. you come down first, then i'll let him up
*med comes down, lus goes up, AND MED JUMPED UP AGAIN BEFORE I COULD STOP HIM*
me: wah! COME DOWN NOW, MED.
med: HAHAA. TOO BAD. WHY YOU SO STUPID? I COME UP ALREADY.
all the other kids: ORH HOR!! MED IS BEING NAUGHTY! AUNTIE CAT, AUNTIE CAT YOU SEE HIM!!
lus: ah, nvmnvm, i come down.
wah. that's how defiant he was. how did i handle him? i didnt. cause he managed to find the waterbottle, and then the teachers were all praising him -.-
3. i was standing at the tank watching them, cause it was slightly dangerous to climb up, but it just so happened that i stepped on a pile of ants, and they were attacking me and it was painful with them biting me. so i told the boys to watch it, and i sat down and started pinching off the ants one by one. during that short-less-than-5-mins-break, one of the boys couldnt climb up, and he tried to get up by pulling the aluminium wire. and what happened? he has abrasions on his last three fingers.
luckily we brought alcohol swabs and plasters.
and we "tended to him". he was okay after that.
but i felt guilty cause i went off to pinch ants -.-, and left them alone..
*next time diedie must keep an eye on them ESP THE BOYS*
4. the children were okay at the adventure park, i think it's cause the waichien jiejie was able to do one thing i can never do:
she restrained herself and the kids, to make sure she briefed them and that they all had got it in their heads, before letting them off.
eg:
there was a freaking lot of groups that day.. like 6? in one place. then 3 of those groups had CHILDREN. and i was like "shitshit. dont brief the children already! just let them all go before the other children invade!!"
but that jiejie didnt think like me. she made the children sit down, brief them, pick those who werent listening to repeat what she said, until they all understood, THEN BRING THEM DOWN. i was.. like.. whoa. nice one. i couldnt keep that calm.. kiasu mah :DD
5. that day, we were all like human barriers.. they were running all around and THEY JUST FREAKING WOULDNT LISTEN. so we had to resort to physical methods. to quite good success :DD
HAHA! TUYANS LIMBS WERE SUPER LOOOOONG. VERY GOOD HUMAN BARRIER :DD
and that;s all :D
Labels: 6.11.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Thursday, June 12, 2008
5th june outing reflections!
Today we went over with the kids at lakeside over to Army Museum! :DD
totally didn't see any shuai guys T.T (kidding kidding! :DD)
i was late, then caused everyone to be late, sorry sorry T.T
reached at 12.45 instead, and phoebe jiejie was already briefing them..
we wanted to split into groups, but this time we never.. maybe also cause they're already p4andp5, old enough to behave properly, dont need to hold our hands anymore DD:
but next week it's the p3 and p6, so i think might be able to put grouping plan into action! (but maybe still not possible T.T)
anyway! i realised that Lakeside has a carpark where you can board the buses without getting rained on! :DD
and i know another name, vivienne jiejie! age:19. HOHOHO! XD
we were all pretty well behaved, i yelled at 2 boys who kept pushing to try and play some game we've already left.
i wrote "we" cause i agree with farah, we were like, touring with the kids! :DD
instead of leading i.i
but next week we'll know our way around already, so can lead!!
and also we kept lagging behind them. they were all infront then we slowly slowly walked behind. to the point the uncle even chided us -.-
next time must stick tightly to the back (although i think a few of us will be infront, to lead the new aunties and little kids the right way in)
loved the lil shows we saw. esp the strong wind and mist, and the bombing and shooting! :DDD
like watching FOC MOVIE! heh heheheh XDD
and also the individual marksmanship training thingy. LOVED IT! :DD
everyone was lively, and i think sa fa ha used the food to train the kids to be more polite.
though some of them just take and never even say please, or at least, thankyou.
NEXT TIME WE DONT GIVE THEM! *HMPH*
was kinda slightly ticked the whole day.
hopefully next week's trip will be better. :DD
Labels: 6.05.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Friday, June 6, 2008
SO WASTED! D<
gah!
today we were all there from 9.30 am till 12.00nn.
and i think, at least for me, it was pretty wasted DD:
the reason why we're even going back, i think, is cause we're worried for our tutees.. and we wanted to give them extra tuition during the holidays, that hopefully, they can improve alot and clear up all the doubts they have about the concepts taught from term1 to term2, before the schools start teaching new material in term 3 and 4.
but guess what?
last week, the primary 3s were off attending something in the library.
this week? the primary 3s were at a day camp conducted by acjc.
hopefully the acjc ppl uses the extraordinary time they have with the kids to brush up their concepts, and their character.
i hoping to see improvement in the children from the camp, either in character or studies.
or else i'm gonna criticise them like hell for stealing away and wasting the already-precious-and-scarce time we have with the kids (angry!)
so yeah. today i taught a primary 4 boy, the 不留名 friend of my last-week-buddy.
he's pretty smart, proficient in both english and chinese, which i totally wasn't back in primary 4.
he didn't need much help. but he was kinda ZZZzZZ cause he kept getting the wrong answers.
so we played a game similar to "who wants to be a millionaire?"
the close passage had 20 blanks. i gave him 3 lifelines.
50/50, where i cover half the answers, and he chooses from the other answers.
outright answer, where i tell him the answer and explain.
hint! i showed him, using the passage, what the word should mean, and he picks the correct word from the list given.
he finished super quick, and i had nothing to do. faith jiejie then told farah and i that the centre doesnt emphasize on work that much during the holidays! so we can go play with the kids. but the kids that we're close to, and would play with, are away at the day camp~~
so we wasted our time away, answering random questions from the children around us.
i hope that we'll get to tutor the children soon. failing is really serious, especially so in primary school. if they're flunking the subjects at primary school level, can you imagine they nightmare they're gonna face in secondary school, when they have to learn stuff lightning fast as the school rushes through the syllabus?!
and if they can't learn properly their concepts in lower primary, their foundation is gonna be weak, how are they gonna learn strongly their subjects in upper primary, and score well in the psle?!
im damned worried for them.
and they kinda remind me of myself, i dont want them to turn out like me T.T
and the stuff they learnt is different from ours. they're learning about penguin behavioral adaptations to it's cool climate, and ive got no idea.
and they can use calculators!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!
it's faster for them and all, but they'll get dependant on the calculator so young!
(to be frank, i think using the calculator dumb-ifed my brain. i used to think fast, cause of the mental sums, but i need to type stuff into the calculator to count now, i cant survive without it DD:)
i feel super unproductive and wasted. tmr we're bringing them out. but i think they've got day camp. oh wells.
bus's leaving at 1 pm tmr.
we're meeting at 12.15pm at lakeside mrt. reach by 12.30pm
and here ends the unhappy post of the apple jelly.
im hoping for a better time with them tomorrow.
Labels: 6.04.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, June 4, 2008
28th May reflections!
Today's visit was kinda odd
we were there at 9.30am till 12.30nn, with everyone present.
The p3s were doing something in the library, so we were split up..
dont know who farah, sarah and tuyan taught..
but jean, fenghan and myself taught the upper primary..
& i felt very tired and sad today after teaching 1 of them..
at first, i was teaching a primary 4 guy, called jun hao or smth liddat.
he was unwilling to do, and kept on talking to his 不留名 friend, so we 搬家to another table..
from then on, as long as i remained enthusiastic and encoraging, he was able to finish his work very quickly.
then i moved on to YF. and she was another story altogether.
i had tutored her before, for phoenetics the other time. she had struck me then as a hardworking student who was really poor in english, but willing to work hard to improve.
what i saw today made me think twice. she was doing her maths, and like XY, she wasnt able to do it well because of her poor grasp of english.
when i tutored her, she said she didnt understand the question. so i explained the question to her. by asking her to read each sentence out to me, and explain to me the meaning. she'll claim she didnt know. so i'll translate to chinese for her to understand. and even then, she'll say she didnt know. i felt that she wasnt even willing to think, and was just feigning ignorance to get me to explain to her, and prompt her again and again. this was our typical coversation for every question:
her: jiejie, i dont know how to do this question.
me: okay, read it for me.
her: *reads in stuttering english the entire question*
me: okay, explain to me the first sentence
her: i dunno.
me: *explains in simple english*. understand?
her: 可以说华语吗？
me: err.. if you dont attempt to understand questions in english, how are you going to do your exam paper during the PSLE? i wont be there to translate for you, you know.
her: oh. *struggles really hard to understand in simple english*
after understanding the question, i ask:
me: okay. so how do you set about doing this question?
her: i dont know.
me: you have to try.. imagine this is the psle, how do you do this question?
her: ah. a+b? a x b? a-b? a/b? c+a? *random guesses all the way*
me: nono. it's a+b. *explains it's cause it's 2 roads, and the entire distance travelled is the 2 roads plus together*
her: orh. *copies onto paper*
yeah. and the process repeats FOR EVERY QUESTION, even if the question was EXACTLY THE SAME, just with different values, BUT EVEN WITH THE EXACT SAME DIAGRAM.
and the bad thing is;
if she was a student who wasnt interested and just anyhowanyhow, it'll still be alright, cause i'll think that she's capable of answering the questions.
but she's actually trying very very hard, and yet she still cant do it..
i felt so tired at that point.. and very worried.. if she cant even do simple questions like routes, how on earth is she gonna pass her PSLE? if she indeed improve enough to pass her psle, how is she gonna cope with secondary schoolwork? it's very 心痛 to see her like that too..
so this is how my teachers feel when i do badly.. they must feel super tired, frustrated and kinda helpless too.. i want to work harder and clear my damn bloody exams, clear up my understanding, and make sure i can still do well without them, and stop making them worry.
and then she had this bitchy friend, fenghan's tutee-for-the-day, i forgot her name alr, WHO KEPT CALLING HER STUPID AND TALKING IN CHINESE AND HOKKIEN *FAINTS*
i was tired and so i just let them talk.
in hindsight, i should have asked her to please leave us alone for about an hour, ask her to talk to YF in ENGLISH, and to stop calling YF "bodoh", "stupid", "idiot".
It was obvious YF minded, but she just protested half heatedly, cause everytime she protested, her friend would call her the derogatory term even louder, and 点 her head..
i felt like slapping her and asking her to keep her effing hands off my poor tutee.. *violent tendencies*
i was a bullshit tutor that day and have alot to brush up on..
- my patience
- just cause i feel tired, i should still stay enthusiastic.
- why didnt i stop the bullying?
- just how do i help her??!? (im thinking of firing more questions at her, make her practice and practice and practice until she's familiar with all the terms already.. but do i have the time and resources?)
& seeing her like that has made me more determined than ever that An HAS to do well.. his foundation HAS to be good.. if not he wont do well in the future..
JIAYOU JELLIES! bring your tutees up up up!!
Labels: 5.28.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Thursday, May 29, 2008
21st May!
hmm!
today we had the X-country! which ended at about 11.30am~
then we took bus and had lunch, during lunch did last min preparations, then arrived at the centre at 2.30pm.
WE WERE ALL THERE FROM 2.30PM TO 5.50PM TODAY :DD
-----------
i sorta expected today to go well, but it didnt exactly..
1. we were all tired cause of the X-country, even if tuyan, feng and i didn't run -.-
2. last week, 12 kids. this week, 23 kids (+2 that came later)
3. tutor first, then have the game (we were all tired from the tutoring alr)
4. as the game was after tutoring, it started late, ended late, a few kids went home in the midst of the game.
5. i didnt prepare properly for this one. sorry jellies i.i
basically, what went on:
- realised that the kids couldnt afford the time to play.. many failed their exams (including my An), and are behind in their work..
- discussed with Faith jiejie, she said it was fine.. cause during hols they still needa attend "lessons", so still okay-okay
- auntie catherine thought it was better to have all the primary 3 kids play the game, cause it's fair-er, and last week alot didnt get to play..
- there were 2 ACJC girls there tutoring.. they seemed pretty nice, and i felt bad about stealing away their tutees after they only taught for an hour.. so i invited them to take over my station (split into 2 for them) and be station masters while i take photos!
- realised i didnt prepare any paper for station masters to sign... then i just anyhow tear paper.. i think the boring-ness of the paper got affected their mood to playD:
- at first got 21 kids, very nice alr! (7 groups mah)! then 4 lil ones appeared one by one.. so in the end, some groups got 4, some got 3
- it started late, a few kids had to go home! no. of ppl in each group now ranged from 4-2
- disagreements over grouping started happening.. there was fighting within the groups.. cause there was too many ppl, many were saying "i havent even seen the paper, and my groupmates already answered the question. then why should i play?" (GROUPS TOO BIG!)
- some wandered off cause they were "useless" in their groups
- they were very very very very noisy.. and very difficult to control.. auntie catherine came to tell me the game was too noisy 2134657854353 times!
- kids remarked some questions were too difficult, made them demoralised (logic + chinese station)(somemore so qiao3.. one after the other)
- the only redeeming part was simon says.. they were super enthu about it, for some reason.. i just said "okay, now we shall play simon says." then they screamed "YAY!"
and they went along quite willingly to all my stupid actions! Farah and Sarah said that lil Ro put his foot on the table cause he cannot hold it up! LOL
my thoughts:
- super jumbled up.. even though we planned to avoid this, there wasnt a clean transition from one station to another.. cause the groups were big, and they ambled around slowly!
- instead of firing questions, the kids took all the questions, and spread out among themselves to do!! (cause last time got 3, choose one. now is alot.. maybe station masters werent strict enough, so the kids dared to just take)
- when planning, we didnt take into consideration the problems big grps would pose.. like the internal fighting (why you all never let me see question? why you take question first?), the talk-while-walking-super-slowly attitude they would adopt in big groups..
- having 4 rowdy boys in a group is pure terror.. they'll get emboldened, then speak damn loudly and become super hard to control.. but if separate, they sulk and say they wanna be together.
- I NEVER EVER WANNA ARRANGE STATION GAMES FOR ALL OF THEM EVER AGAIN.
- but i wanna try others!
LIKE TEACHING "DOLL DANCE"!
using simon says as a "morning exercise?"
play musical statue!
teach UG cheer! (cannibal king!)
HAHA :DD
as for the tutoring..
An didn't bring his paper.. he said his teacher kept it..
and i saw his report book! his science went from 37 to 70, chinese got improve, english from 47 to 37, maths from 57 to 56..
i dont know whether i can his progess from the paper, as the SA may have been harder or easier than the CA.. i think i can only know by comparing with the other kids..
hopefully the SA was harder.. :DD
realised that An got lucky in his paper.. i only realised today that he isn't good at model drawing at all!! cause his assessment books required corrections, and almost all were from questions needing model drawing.. and i also realised that the aunties didnt teach him by using models, but by using algebra! *faints*
so yeah, gotta strengthen him on that..
hmm
to do list:
- BUY BOX TO CATCH SPIDERS
- THE PRIZES FOR THE KIDS
- (needa buy more prizes alr.. didnt realise will have so many kids @.@
maybe one pencil for each, and the winners get extra? anyone willing to go buy more notepads? xDD)
beryl's off to do her maths alr.. but im very tired @.@
nights! :DD
p/s photos some other time :D
Labels: 5.21.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, May 21, 2008
NOT TUTORING! STATION GAMES!!
HELLO HELLO! :DD
TODAY EVERYONE WAS PRESENT, REACHED AT 3.30PM, LEFT AT 6.30PM.
it's been a looooooooooooooooooooooong time since we last went there, with exams and all!
first we confirmed the outing details! and she says she wants one more for her p1 and p2 students (50 students). for details, please refer to "outing details" labelled post, the one posted on 14th may.
then we got her a-okay for the station games!
then we got her a-okay for photos too! (we said we would capture from their backs, auntie yh was kinda amused. but in the end we shot from front -.-)
and yeah! auntie yh gave us 12 p3s to work with for station games! (cause the rest were with percussion band. btw, today was the last day the percussion band was going over)
we were only prepared for 6, but in the end got 12.. so we made them pair up! (6 stations mah)
and the prizes.. only the top 3 teams got prizes! (got one lil boy, toysen or smth like that, was suuper upset got no consolation prize.. nvm! next week got sommore XDD)
the station games!
- chinese (farah)
- english (tuyan)
- multiplication and division (fenghan)
- science (jean)
- problem sums (sarah)
- logic (beryl)
rules:
- each pair will start off with one jiejie.
- they must follow the order given (we can follow, by seeing who signed the paper last)
- we will tell them who they must find next. they must ask us to verify. (but we cannot tell them who is who, we can only say whether we are, or we are not. GOT PROPAGANDA ONE! make them remember our names XDD. helps bonding mah! XD)
- got 3 questions to choose from. Easy, Medium, Hard. worth 1pt, 2pts, 3 pts respectively. they choose one qn to answer. once they got it, they move on! if wrong, take another pick, wrng again, take the last pick. (in a nutshell, just answer one question to go)
we all used diff coloured pens to sign.. i think that also make the paper more colourful, made them more interested! XDD
hmm, the kids were running to and fro, squealing and shouting, trying to answer the questions best and fastest and get the most points! i think my station was quite difficult.. but got 4 girls amazed me. 2 of them answered my medium question, another 2 answered my hard question!! the rest got 0. i tried to give them a bonus question (what is 30 divided by half?) answer is 60, but all told me 15 -.-
haha! the 2 girls that answered my hard question eventually got 1st prize! XDD
the other 2 girls that answered my medium question got 2nd prize! XDD
see? my logic station shows the winners. HAHA XDD jkjk
hmm, got a little girl, Jes, loves to take pics. keep taking pics man..
got little toyson upset cause no prize @.@
anyways, im super glad the brainchild of farah and sarah came to life! SUPER FUN!!
here's some testimonials:
(typed word for word, so got spelling mistakes XDD)
LokeJY: Can we play it another time pleeaassee? *draws a cute cat* It is fun too!
LinY: It is very interesting and fun! ~ *heartshape*
Jes: I think that the game is very nice! =D =) =S
Germ: I think that the game is very fun! =)
PeiX: I think the game is interesting and challenging! =) Ha!Ha!
Jo: I like this game because it is very fun and interesting. it help me in Maths, Chinese, Enlish and science.
HAHA~ XDD ------------------------------------------
after the games, i tutored An again! he was super high today! he was like:
"JIEJIEJIEJIEJEIEJIEJIEEJIEEJIEJIEEEEEEEEEEEEE! COMECOME!"
then i followed him, and he got his book, and said " I FINISH ALL ALREADY!"
then i gave him the Stink Eye, and asked "REALLY AH?"
he said "YUP. YOU THINK WHAT?" *grins widely*
then i said, oh, so you wanna go play? he said, "NOPE. I WANT TO DO SOMEMORE". then he passed his book to auntie sharmaine to mark out pages for him to do..
i was damn shocked, then i was like "auntie sharmaine, why is he so high?"
then she smiled and said "because An got his papers back!"
i went OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
then i asked An for his papers! he did super well! (a big improvement from the failures in term 1)
Chinese: 62.5/70
Listening: 9/10
Science:
Section A: 20/40
Section b: 15/26
Total: 35/50
Maths
Section A: 26/60
Section B: 30/64
Total: 56/100
SEE THE MATHS. ITS THE MOST IMPT! HE PASSED XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
alot of his other friends fail, and he improved to pass! XDDDD
super proud of him! :DD
then i rifled through his test papers, and found he was weak in:
- even numbers! (end with even no., placing's significance)
- unsure about bar graphs, cannot read them properly.
- missing no. in box (?? divide by 9 = 6R1) (ans: (6x9)+1)
- fractions! (shade 3/12 triangles = 1/4)
- minutes & hr
got a few more, but he needed to go home alr..
saw that he did the section A's multiplication and division and other stuff perfectly :DD
glad to see him have such a huuuuuuuge improvement! XDD
hopefully it continues until he doesnt need me anymore. XDD
i'll upload the photos some other time :DD
nights, sleep tight, jellytarts!
signing off, beryl! @ 12.39am
Labels: 5.14.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, May 14, 2008
reflections!
everyone went today! XDD
reached at about 4.40pm today~
Auntie Yewhwa had already went home, so we couldn't discuss the CID outing with her further..
(update: she has smsed me, must confirm with group this coming monday)
An was still having percussion, so i took mel aka jj first.
jj was having problems with his maths, and it went "
there are 3 times more boys than girls"
and DENGDENG!
sarah's method of teaching came into my head!
so i told him to take it as
3units for boys, and
1unit for girls! and he understood immediately, but we practiced 4 more such questions to make sure he was familiar with it.
(looking back at my primary school days, i wished my teacher taught me like that! i had problems with the "than" too!! and she tried to teach me what "than" meant, and then sent me to my english teacher to try and make me understand.. she shld've just used "units" =.=)& he also had problems differentiating bigger from smaller numbers, and even from odd!
told him to remember
"even and odd numbers don't like their own kind. so they want to change all the time! the smallest number is 0, right? just remember that zero is even! so 1 will be odd, 2 be even, 3 be odd, 4 be even, 5 be odd, 6 be even, 7 be odd, 8 be even, and 9 be odd!
when you see whether a number is odd or even, just see the last number! infront all dont care!
22222222222222222222 -> even!
22222222222222222223 -> odd!
"but for bigger and smaller numbers, see the infront! if the first number infront is the same, then go to the second number, then third! once there is a bigger or smaller number in the front few numbers, the back no need to care!!
2222 -> smaller!
3222 -> bigger!
4387 -> bigger!
4321 -> smaller!
and following that, An came out, and he went "jieJIE!! HURRY! I WANT YOU TO TEACH ME"
and i was like WHOA! O.O why is he so enthu today?
and so i went with him, and asked jj to finish up his assessment books, and then come and ask me if he has any more questions.
so i followed An to the table, and he plopped his book onto the table, flipped to that page.
half of it was blank, but the top half was all filled.
the bottom ones were easier than the top few, so i asked him "O.O? what is it you dont know? you know how to do the hard ones leh!!"
GUESS WHAT HE SAID.
"是那个JC姐姐帮我做的。"
i tell you, i wanted to explode and hate acjc forever. this is what, the umpteenth time that i have the children telling me "is she help me do one." "he say, i just do." "she show me how to do all".
when will they freaking realise that teaching isn't showing or providing answers?!?!
not only are they wasting time with the kids, the children think they know how to do, then they dont ask, and they'll only realise it when the exams come, or when other mini-teachers like us quiz them. and it changes their mindset, making them super unwilling to learn, making our job, the real teaching, even more difficult.
anyway, then i erased all and told An to try on his own.. out of 8, he got 6 wrong. how did he get the 2 correct? cause he managed to remember the working before i erased it -.-
(during the checking of his answers, i took out my calculator to quickly see if the final answer is correct)
so i told him, cannot, all wrong! and i proceeded to erase the 6 wrong ones. he let me erase. while i was erasing, he saw Ro(farah's tutee) using farah's calculator to check his (already worked out by himself)answers.
then he tried to grab mine too. i put it out of his reach, and asked him why on earth he wanted my calculator for. he said "to find the answer loh!"
i said he can't learn that way, and tried to teach him how to do long division all over again! and he was super unwilling, had a super bad attitude and called me "STUPID" all the way.
i ignored the first few times, cause i could understand him being frustrated, having to re-learn what he THOUGHT he knew (stupid acjc "tutor" -.-)
however, the method we're all using is interactive, and needs the tutee to think, and to answer the questions we pose (to help them remember better, and to make sure they truly know how to do the questions)
his answer: "ZERO LA, STUPID"
me: "the number that is close to or exactly 8, but not exceeding 8, and a multiple of 3, is 0?"
his answer: "THEN? STUPID LA."
after continuous abuse poor me suffered at his hands, and after i realised he diedie also wont pay attention, and after he cried and shouted at me and kicked the chair and threw all over the place the workings i tried to teach him, I WAS FED UP.
during the abuse i suffered at his hands, i remember that;
Ro piped up "oh.. later An go crazy again and dont want to learn"
then it hit me that that he uses this tactic to avoid learning. they wont bend to his terms? then he wont learn lor.
last time whenever he cried, i would back peddle and let him have his way, or at least try to make a compromise.
no more, man.
he wants to throw a tantrum? fine.
i put my paper in between the pages, closed the book, and slid the book over to his corner of the table, out of my sight.
then i said "talk to me when you're ready to learn."
conveniently, jj came up at my other side, and i turned my back towards An, and taught JJ instead.
then An took out my paper and threw them all over the place again (i previously picked them up). this time i picked up the papers and said "you want to throw? ok." then i threw them into the dustbin.
then i resumed my seat, and continued teaching JJ.
then An pushed his book infront of me, flipped to the page and shouted "TEACH LA"
i asked: "are you ready to learn?"
he shouted back: "NO LA"
then i closed the book and pushed it over to his side again.
the book is with him. the choice is with him.
then after another time, he pushed it infront of me again for the 3rd time.
this time i didnt even bother asking him whether he was ready. i just took out the paper, and did everything out, while voicing out loud how i got that number, what i did next, why i did it.
and then after i was done, i nudged the book to him. and he picked up his pencil and tried to do. and he could do it!! (with a bit of prompting from me)
his attitude was a whole 360! he was listening super attentively when i did the question out loud.
and i realised that apart from not knowing how to do long div properly, he also had extra difficulties cause he was not familiar with the 7 and 8 times table.
well, my purpose there is to teach him, and to make it easier for him to learn long div, the basics, i wrote out for him the 7 and 8 times table.
he could do all the questions by himself with a rare prompt or two from me! :DD
felt like we were finally getting somewhere, and i finally managed to handle him and tantrums!! XDD
and i must thank my mum for forcing me to memorise the times table when i was in p3! if i hadnt then, i surely wouldnt be able to swiftly learn my long division or multiplication or stuffs! so yeah, i realised the importance of memorising the times table!
so i told him to better bring home the paper and memorise, next week we'll have a competition to see who can learn more! (cue picked from farah!).
and he went like "oh. OKAY!" then made sure that i put the correct piece of paper into his pencilcase to prevent me from "cheating" LOL
and he became super nice to me after that, sharing with me the jelly (LOL) that the percussion ppl gave him.
i brand today has highly successful! and all the best to his exams man :DD
i realised, after the entire saga, that he probably changed his attitude cause i wasnt doing what was expected. i believe i wasnt the first person he threw a tantrum, cause he was frustrated he didnt know how to do, how to answer, to. he probably threw it at the acjc students, and then they caved in, and told him the answers. when i didnt, and actually threw away what he was throwing around for show, he didnt know how to react. so bo bian, just learn lor -.-
and im hoping that he became super nice to me after that, because he was happy that i finally taught him, and he finally knew, the way to do long division. it's quite exhilarating to finally understand something that's eluded you for ages, ya know ;D
all the best to your exams, Jellytarts!!
<33! Beryl!
Labels: 4.23.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Sunday, April 27, 2008
16.4.08 reflections
today only me, fenghan and jean went!
farah had doc appt, sarah had bio attachment, tuyan was on learning journey!
today An wasn't in the centre! he was sick D:
so i tutored another girl in maths, called JL.
she was enthusiastic and lively!! just not so in maths..
she had done about 1/4 of what she had to do, but when i asked her to continue, she said "i dunno how to." and i said "but didnt you just finish half the page?!"
she said "oh. that one ah. is the jiejie tell me what to do, i write down only." acjc again -.-
then i realised a problem. alot of the children i've tutored who are weak in maths, are weak in maths, because they dont have teachers who teach, they have teachers who tell them what to do, and the children did not learn how to do maths! they only learn how to follow instructions!!
so i pulled out my ever handy markers and foolscap and drew for her a simple question. 8 divided by 2. she knew the answer!(using mental calculation) but she didnt know how to present it properly!! so i had to teach her the basics all over again! she was interested greatly cause of the marker pens (she kept asking for a different colour for every different step), and so she learnt pretty fast.
after we were done, i asked her to attempt the questions in her assessment book. and she said she was very confused!! (later on i learnt it was cause the space given was very small, the numbers were small) so i copied over one question to the foolscap, and asked her to do it.. SHE COULD DO IT! then i asked her to do the 2nd question in the book.. she could do it, but she kept asking me whether it was correct, like her confidence disappeared all of a sudden.. and she took very long.. so i asked her to copy the 3rd question onto the foolscap, and amazingly, she could do it fast and accurately!! then i asked her why this was so.. she said she didnt know, the problem just seems easier on the foolscap.. so i thought..
is it because the practice questions that i gave, and that she solved, were all done on foolscap, and so she was confident when solving questions on foolscap. but when asked to solve the 12-problems-in-1-page assessment book, she got intimidated by all the numbers, and didnt want to do anymore.. so i asked her to go home and revise more, and do the questions on the page itself, no reverting to foolscap allowed! im rather confident she'll do that, cause she was very interested in maths once she could solve it, and also because she has no foolscap (she didnt even know what it was at first)
the only problem was when i got too friendly with her.. she started putting her hand on my face to get me to pay attention to her.. a move that i greatly dislike.. i tolerated a few more times, then i put a stop to her work for a fw minutes and told her to stop doing that, cause others get uncomfortable and it's disrespectful.. at first she kept fogetting what i just said and continued putting her hand on my face, but after my constant prompting and repeated reminders, she finally stopped that bad habit, and became any other energetic girl!
so i could classify this as highly successful...
p/s in order to get her to start moving her pen at first, i bribed her with sweets :DD
Labels: 4.16.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Thursday, April 17, 2008
reflections for 9th of april!
everyone went today! :DD
hmm! i tutored An for the 9th! everything was tight running.. we managed to get through muliplication successfully, and also taught him basic division.. but when it was time to teach him the longer and more complicated division, he became more interested in bugs and flies and refused to listen to me..
i tried applying all the method's we've discussed before, and eventually resorted to.. threatening him. (this method was actually discussed as a last resort, but i forgot An was especially sensitive)
i told him he'ld better start paying attention or else i'll ask auntie S to tutor him instead.
he instantly clammed up and refused to talk to me at all!!
then i couldnt understand why, i thought he was about to listen, just trying to put on a last defiant stand.. so i continued with the threats (SUPER BIG MISTAKE *scrunches face*)
he started crying.. then i was be bewildered.. i thought he really was lost about the maths or something.. so i tried to revert back to the simple sums, but he ignored me, threw my markers around, and used his pencil to pierce the book repeatedly, intent on mutating it.
then i gave up, and asked him why on earth he wasnt listening. (i was pretty fed up) and he more or less yelled "你吓我！你刚才吓我！为什么每个人都要吓我？吓啦！来啦！你刚刚吓我！”
then i had this overwhelming sense of regret and self reproach.. i was exhibiting the exact type of behaviour i said i wanted to free the children from.. what the hell was i doing?!
then he ran off to the bathroom..
when he came back, i attempted to explain and apologise.. this went on for 45 minutes.. plus the earlier time, 1hr+ was lost in total..
the explaining seemed to have calmed him, but it was still extremely hard to teach him.. so i gave him a break.. luck was on my side, a HUUUGE flying ant appeared and he was jumping around, trying to catch it to fed his tiny spider..
he was getting high over it, and i was standing there helping him, and he finally caught it.. and it cheered him up a whole lot.. after that, he was a-okay again! we manged to do another 1 question, and then i let him off..
so the entire day wasn't productive at all.. it could have been, but i forgot his sensitivities again.. beryl! wake up and stop forgetting your aim!
guide them like a friend would, not dictate and theaten like a monsterLabels: 4.09.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @
2.4.08 reflections!
Today we reached the centre at 4.00pm exactly! on the dot! XDD
tuyan and sarah didn't join us, cause sarah's attached to a university for BIO! DAMN PRO! tuyan's had lotsa tests coming up!
this time, An was still having band lessons from the other grp of student volunteers! so i went to help another girl who was having difficulties learning her spelling~
hmm, lets see what techniques i used from the last time we discussed!
used colours! to highlight the different parts of the word, so that she'll know that when certain parts of the word have the certain type of sound, it's spelt in that certain why.
shrink, shrank, shrunk
yeah! so as you see, the black vowels are the only difference in the spelling and pronunciation!
she initially just hardcore-ly memorised all 60 words @.@
but she kept forgetting words, like remembering "shrink" but forgetting how to spell "shrank, shrunk"
and she was getting quite bored too (who wouldn't be, when you have to memorise all the words ONLY USING YOUR MEMORY?!)
so even though i was kinda sian-ed that day, i was super loud and everything! and i had to exaggerate the way i pronounced the word!
shoot, shot, shot
haha! like that! i was going "oooo" and "o" to show her, and the girl started laughing her head off -.-
but i also started laughing after i forced her to repeat after me, to get the hang of it HAHAXD
but anyway, she memorised everything by the end of it! XDDD
and she had no problem memorising a few other words, using this method!
hopefully she finds this method useful, as i find it, when i was in primary sch till now XD
feel a sense of achievement! heh heh!
anyways, after that An was released! and he didnt have any problems! he has finished his work and all the corrections! i was O.O
he said it was cause there was a new "teacher" (adult volunteer) there, and that guy taught him. An also remarked he did his work super fast, BECAUSE THE TEACHER JUST TOLD HIM ALL THE ANSWERS STRAIGHT.
oh man -.-, i hope this teacher doesn't make An reliant on having answers supplied. and he wont be serious in learning at all, if he knows that he's gonna have answers supplied to him anyway!
grr. i hope the adult volunteer knows what hes doing. we'll see when i tutor An next week ;D
(that's if the guy doesn't finish telling An all the answers first. =.=)
(then again, maybe i'll just test An using the questions that guy gave An answers for, to see if An really knows how to do it xDD)
played with the children after that! realised that a child was spoilt, several are super shy. like they wanted to play but don't dare to ask.
haha! fenghan's super good at including shy children ;D
but the spoilt one likes fenghan alot! i don't know how fenghan's gonna handle her.. if i were the tutor of the spoilt one, i think the kid will hate me for forever more cause i'll be super strict with her.
eh, actually i think fenghan has the ability to make the child less spoilt! she keeps nudging the girl towards the less spoilt direction, like going
noo, 不可以这样，要。。。
eh. i think i would have liked fenghan to bits too, if i was the girl ;D
i must learn from fenghan to be kinder towards children, so that they'll be more willing to change and listen!
Farah's lil buddy seemed to like farah alot!
Jean's buddy was more interactive with her this week, i guess!
they were kept busy tutoring up till the last second, so i didnt really see, just heard little snippets here and there..
hoping we can discuss this weekend!
sounding accusatory and frustrated isnt the way to go! @.@
and then, i played with An and his friend! they both are going to like physics alot! CAUSE THEY WERE PLAYING WITH DOMINOES! I LOVED THAT WHEN I WAS YOUNG TOO!
then they were experimenting with how far the lil bricks need to be placed to make it fall, how heavy (bricks placed on top of each other) the bricks need to be, for them to withstand the hit from the previous domino, but still not fall. i kept thinking of stability when i was watching of them! XDD
the outing should be orientated towards science! i think they'll be interested!
but when i was on the bus ride home, i started wondering.. what role do we play, exactly?
this is what i think..
We're like a group of mini teachers! we teach across every subject, but only for primary 3-4!
we're their confidantes, the seniors who impart to them how to learn and study, who gently nudge them to be better in their characters! and of course, PLAYMATES! HAHA ^^
of course, we cant be perfect also, so we also try to mould ourselves to became these patient beings from heaven *halo appears*
and of course, we also see ourselves in them, the problems they face that we faced and are facing, and when we see others having our problems, it's easier to find a solution that we both have, when we're seeing the problem from the 3rd POV.
i hate chinese! i dont wanna read it, i dont want to learn it!
that guy has no idea how much i wanted to say "i agree man!" but yeah, ive begun to be more serious and more committed and lessen the dislike of my subject.. the reason for my change in thinking? my mummy and zhanglaoshi!
mummy: "读华文很重要！华人一定要会读华文！"
zhanglaoshi never forced me to do chinese, and i dont know, i just.. it's like she's trusting me to do my work, even if i hand it in SUUPER LATE! but she nvr scolds me.. i dont know, but i just feel like doing my chinese cause she trusts me or something. XDD I LOVE HER TO BITS!
and of course, the biggest factor came when.. my aunt's malay friend, dosent watch malay shows, but watches mandarin shows instead! reason? cause mandarin shows have english subtitles, and she cant understand malay!! i felt damn shocked, and i was like "OMG.. I DONT WANT TO BE LIKE HER!"
im gonna relate my experiences to the little guy hopefully he gets the paradigm shift, like i did! and start working hard for his mother tongue!
yeah. i feel so 心痛 when i see the children struggle with the same problems i did, and the frustration and sadness and the whole emotional drama. I SHALL BE THERE TO OVERCOME IT WITH THEM! HEH HEH!
and all of a sudden, i feel so renewed with passion for this service learning!
<3333333333333333333333,>Labels: 4.02.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Sunday, April 6, 2008
19.3.08 reflections!
everyone went tday! it's our first time XDD
things didnt go smoothly D:
We were supposed to leave school by 2.30, but we somehow managed to drag until 3.30..
and even though we told the centre we would reach at 4.00pm, we only arrived at 4.30!
so it was rather bad, although auntie yew hwa didnt comment on us being half an hour late..
after we reached, we found that there was another school band who would be teaching about 40 children(from all lvls).
An, whom im quite close with, was attending the lessons by the band. So i just assisted another student, jack, with his work until An came out. ^^
he was sometimes unable to do the practice maths questions, even though he understood the basics.. then i realised it was because he couldnt "see" how the questions are to be solved.. so i taught him how to draw bar models and see the differences between person A and person B.
then when An was busy drawing the bar models, i went around scouting! (i'm a guide, thats why. XDD)
everyone seems okay with their tutees, but sarah seemed to be having a little difficulty with her despondent buddy. so being the busybody, i popped over to see!
sarah was teaching maths, but the buddy wasn't absorbing anything.. and then i realised that i forgot to hold a mini meeting before the session to teach them how to teach!! so when the buddy went off to say byebye to her friend, i just roughly told sarah to use colour markers, let her choose the colour she wants, and to make the practice questions as space-consuming as possible.
then i went off to help An who was stuck, and once he was preoccupied with the question again, i popped over to sarah! and the buddy was still despondent..
so i asked sarah whether she could switch with me buddies for a little while, and she said it was fine, so of course i asked An to get his "okay" too..
i asked him whether he was okay with me tutoring another student first, and that i'll get back to him later..
An ignored my question. that was the first warning, but i didnt notice it.. so i asked him again. and then he started crying. just like that.
then i asked one of his good friends who was sitting next to me, why An was crying. he said it was because An doesnt like the feeling of abandonment and being alone, and he felt i was just using an excuse to try to abandon him..
i felt really bad and i apologized over and over to An, but he already ran off to the toilet while trying not to cry.. i really should have been more sensitive, especially since he was left alone here because both his parents were busy..
it didnt make sense to just waste time sitting there, so i went over to sarah's buddy to try to teach her how to divide.. i used a super loud voice and praised her for everything she did that wasnt wrong. haha, it kept her happy and more interested in doing the maths.. i started off with super simple and short explanations of how to find the next number to be divided, started off with very basic questions and slowly increased it until it was the standard that was in the assessment book. It worked, and she was able to understand how to use long division. and after that, we all had a bonding session over JENGA!
we got to know them more, forged closer relationships, learnt found out what they disliked, and i think on an overall, they seem to like us more and are more receptive of our instructions after that game. hopefully the next session will be as eye-opening as this one, albeit without the mistakes we made. and hopefully the effects of the mistakes i made this time will not last for long.. D:
Labels: 3.19.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, April 2, 2008
the red stones represent the ring, the blue stone represents the chain!
*doing work seriously*
did this when An was @ percussion, fenghan's heart was wayy nicer! :DD